It’s been over two years since the day when I found out that Sean had died. Two years since a week that was, at times, one of the worst and best weeks of my life. Worst because I, along with all of Sean’s family and friends, had lost a great friend. Best because of all the love shown by all those who were touched by Sean’s life.

Last week, I received an unexpected package from Sean’s parents - a CD of Classic Rock songs arranged for acoustic guitar by Sean’s guitar teacher, James Kalal. Inside was a note from his parents that read, in part:

“…Jim tells the story of Sean as a teenage guitar student wanting to play rock and roll on his classical guitar. Uncomfortable with the concept, Jim adapted and taught Sean a few pieces. As we listen to ‘Hotel California’, it seems as thought Sean is in the room playing. Jim says that Sean taught him something, too.”

On this version of the CD, Jim has placed a simple tribute to Sean: “In celebration of Sean Riegler - born December 27, 1971″.

For me, the songs that make me think of Sean are “Classical Gas” and, of course, “Wish You Were Here”. I’m very touched that Sean’s parents thought to send this to me, and I wanted to share this with my friends who read this.

The CD “Acoustic Rock Classics” can be ordered from James Kalal’s website.

This may sound a bit goofy and, well, not quite in keeping with my somewhat cynical world view. But I felt that it was important to post a bit about this.

I’ve been wearing yellow for the last few weeks - a wristband from the Lance Armstrong Foundation. This plastic band is engraved with a simple motto “LiveStrong”.

Why am I wearing yellow?

I’m wearing yellow because of all those who aren’t here. My grandfather, who never got a chance to meet my son. Jerry’s mom, who won’t get to be there to see his baby. Emily’s mom, who won’t be at her wedding next month. Matt’s mom, who never met Garett.

I’m wearing yellow for those who are here. Jamie’s friend Anne, who’s had to struggle with Lymphoma when most of her friends are struggling with keeping their grades up in college. My wife, who had to fight through cancer when all we wanted to do was to have another brother or sister for Alex.

I wear yellow for them.

I wear it because I believe in what the Lance Armstrong Foundation does - it raises awareness of cancer survivorship and the difficulties that can come about even if you win your fight against cancer. The foundation provides advocacy and education for people living with cancer. It helps develop and public health programs on cancer. And it funds research into cancer.

Above all, it reminds all of us to Live Strong. Which, as corny as it may sound, is something that strikes a chord with me.

Mountain streams. Mountain lakes (with, I’m told some nasty little parasites you don’t want in your body - thanks for ruining the mood, Todd!). Spectacular vistas.

And lots and lots of dust.

There were a few other interesting occurances on the remainder of the trip - the cyclists repeatedly slamming their bikes into some rocks and falling off, Bruce falling asleep on the way back through South Tahoe, Darrol (aka McGyver) filling up the tires with air from a compressor mounted on his engine - but for the most part I was overwhelmed by the scenery.

Take a look for yourself here. Slide show would be the best way to view….

BAM!

SCRAPE!

BAM!

Well, we were definitely on the trail. Deer Valley trail - I found out later - likes to get up close and personal in the first 500 yards or so. In fact, I was told by several members of our party that the first 20 minutes of the trail was the toughest part of the entire trail. Once again, I just nodded my head and muttered my agreement, hoping I didn’t look too much like an idiot.

Progress when going on a trail is very slow - in most cases you could probably walk faster than the jeeps go - but it is sometimes very violent. The jeep rocks from side to side as you position the tires on the rocks, and if you come off a rock you may get a hideous scraping noise as your skid plates drag across a rock. And worst of all, the parts of you that fit in the seat slowly start to become numb from all the pummeling. Perhaps that has to do with that purple paint bit from the first post in this series?

You learn really quick that people running trails don’t like to hear scraping noises - I was told there were “bad” scrapes and “really bad” scrapes. Unfortunately, about 30 minutes into the ride I got to see what a “really bad” scrape was all about.

It happened as we crested a small rise, but hit the rocks wrong and got hung up on a good size rock (well, more like a small boulder). This is not a good thing, because with the bottom of the jeep “high centered” on this rock we weren’t going anywhere.

Stacking. That’s what you do in times like this. Sounds simple and easy, but although the former is true the later surely isn’t. You run around and collect rocks to shove under the wheels to try to give the jeep the ability to climb off whatever it may be that you’ve gotten yourself stuck on.

Didn’t work in this case. Of course, I did get the exciting experience of diving out of the way of one of the nasty side effects of stacking - that is, a stack of rocks under a rotating object (in this case, a tire) have a strange habit of taking flight and flying off at a high rate of speed.

So that’s when we got to use one of those cool winches I was talking about - Darrol attached the able up to a tow hook on Todd’s back bumper, and Jim pulled us off the rock.

So we were back in action, somewhat. While we were hungup on the rock, Todd had noticed a worrying “click” somewhere in his front end that seemed to be related to the front differential. So we were forced to take the jeep out of 4×4, but since we had already hit the more difficult part of the trail the consensus was that we would be fine.

Continuing to get numb in various parts of my body and panting from the exertion of diving out of the way of the shrapnel-like results of the stacking, we rolled on.

To be continued….

My “Reno 4×4 Adventure” actually started late Friday evening with trips to both Target and WinCo Foods. I had to buy the essentials (as stated to me by my hosts). I bought food and snacks for the trip, enough beer to float a houseboat (this was noted as a very important item), a hula-girl bobblehead for Darrol (impulse buy), sandals to wear in the event I had to wade into a stream to spot the jeeps (freezing cold mountain streams and my feet - boy did that sound like fun), and a bag to carry it all in. I also packed extra clothes, a few towels (courtesy of the Reno Residence Inn), and a camera to document it all.

Saturday morning dawned cold and clear. I tracked down the expedition’s Australian representative, Mark Brooks (”Bruce” for short), and we headed out to eat at Joe’s. Seriously. Joe’s Diner in Reno is a great place for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or “just hanging out.” At least that’s what their ads say.

Breakfast finished, we headed over to the warehouse. The final stages of packing were already underway when we arrived, so we tossed our bags on the racks, added our food and beer into the cooler and hopped in the jeeps. Bruce and I rode with Todd. David (another Reno employee) rode with Darrol.

The first part of the day consisted of getting to the trail - we left Reno and headed out towards California. Our destination was the trailhead for the Deer Valley trail. We picked up two other off-roaders before the trail. Jeff and Deb in a rebuilt Jeep Willys and Jim and Adam - Jim is an engineer who worked on the Jeep Wrangler for Jeep and is currently the owner of his own company Nth Degree Mobility which specializes in off-road performance products.

Once we hit the trail head, it was time to “air down” - the pressure in the tires of all four jeeps was dropped from ~32 psi to ~12 psi. The reason for this, I was told, is twofold - first, to improve traction and second to elminiate the possibility of pinch flats.

Then everyone who had a front swaybar decoupled them - this is to allow the front end to “drop” further. I was told that this is done to improve off-road handling and make it easier to get over obstacles. Of course, it makes the ride a bit more…shall I say sporting when you are on “real” roads.

Now a bit more detail on these preparations - for as much as I knew about going offroad they could have told me just about anything and I would have gone along with it. “Paint my butt cheeks purple? In case we get stuck in deep water? Sure, sure….”

So we were there all aired down and decoupled, and (maybe) painted the appropriate colors. There was only one thing left to do: it was time to hit the trail.

To be continued….